Week 15 Real Rankings

It’s Jason’s world and we’re all living in it, even Gibby. Those two comprised a top tier for a while but Gibby has started to slide back the past few weeks (coinciding with the loss of Kershaw?) while Jason has continued his dominance. At 5.10, Jason is threatening to break the 5.00 plane, which is pretty incredible when you consider that means he’s averaged fifth place in all categories the entire season.  Never one to leave a trade deadline empty-handed, the team could get even better.

 

And odd bit of statistical gold this week – the top two teams in Real Rankings (me and Jason), who also happen to be the top two teams in the actual standings, both posted clean sweeps of their opponents, ending the week at 10-0. The oddity comes in that their opponents happened to be #13 and #14 in the Real Rankings this week. Mix in the gaudy numbers from the extended week and you have some extreme domination there.

 

Other than pushing everyone farther out of first, week 15 did little to clear up who will be in the playoffs and who will not. Sitting in 13^th place, Urban is still only 7.5 games out of a playoff spot. That’s a number that can easily be made up over the course of six weeks. That means everyone who wants to be in it is in it.

 

However, that begs the question – who wants to be in it? The open trading period starts at midnight on Sunday. That means teams can trade two picks in Rounds 7-10 in the 2017 draft. There is no limit on the number of picks one can acquire. But with so many people still in it, will anyone be selling (other than the skeletal remains of Kyle’s long-picked apart corpse, that is)? Whoever calls it stands to benefit quite a bit because there’s a lot of desperate teams looking for help. The question is: Is it worth it?

 

DON’T FORGET:  The top non-playoff team gets the #1 pick next season, 9^th place gets first pick, 10^th place gets second, and so on. No lottery After the vote, we decided to revisit after this year on whether to lottery non-playoff teams. But this is sort of what I had hoped for – it incentivizes everyone to finish strong.

 

I should say ahead of it that there will be no tanking. You will be expected to have a full, active roster and it is the Commissioner’s discretion whether to punish violators. I will not hesitate to throw someone out and get an interim manager to take over a roster if I see it. We will not have the playoffs decided by teams tanking on purpose.

 

That said, I see no reason not to do your best. As all of you know, anything can happen in a H2H playoff. The best team usually does not win, so keep that in mind. Meanwhile, the difference between the first and sixth pick is miniscule. The first overall pick sounds great, but it can’t compare to the potential off a playoff run. I haven’t picked in the first round in a few years (I annually get talked into trading them), and haven’t had a top 5 pick that I can remember. I’ve been doing all right for myself.

 

The cluster of teams between 7.0-8.0 on the Real Rankings comprise most of the bottom half of the current playoff team and those on the fringe, so it’s really anyone’s game. The open trading period could go a long way toward clearing up that picture. The question is whether teams will wait a week to decide whether to start selling. Anal has been good lately, while Donkey and Moose are also playing well. Still much to be decided!

 

People should start thinking about paying your fee soon. Only a handful have so far.